The Downtown Squamish Business Association (BIA) announced "monumental changes" on Monday (Nov. 15) as its president, Gregory Fischer, and executive director, Cinci Csere, resigned.
Leaving the post he's held since 2007, a "saddened" Fischer said he wanted to turn his attention back to family and his business, "which I've neglected to some degree."
And Csere stated she wants to return to her own marketing communications endeavours after taking over the part time position at the beginning of the year.
"It's time to focus more on my career and getting some of the ideas in my head off the ground," she said.
Although the BIA achievements under their direction included Canada Day celebrations, Rumble to the Rock, Theatre in the Park, as well as the upcoming "Happenin' Holiday Cash Card Contest," which last year accounted for $184,000 in revenue over six weeks for 30 merchants, both expressed a degree of disappointment in the roadblocks they've encountered while trying to improve the downtown.
The release pointed to the lack of a "collaborative and supportive" climate among other local organizations, which the BIA had "hoped would give the downtown core an economic jolt."
Csere also expressed frustration over the district's role with BIA.
"I've had a wonderful time getting to know the community and the merchants, but I felt that too much time was spent on logistics and process with the district," said Csere.
She said "in an ideal world" the BIA would have a full time executive director and part time administrator. However an annual business levy income of only $45,000 hinders the BIA's ability to afford the staff.
The organization's new president, former vice-president Eric Armour, said the BIA intends to hire a replacement for the part time position, which pays around $20,000 a year.
"Without [an executive director], we would be extremely limited in the scope of work we're able to accomplish," said Armour.
BIA pushes for downtown pavilion
Armour echoed concerns over the BIA's relationship with the district. After years of being bounced from department to department, a district staff member was recently appointed to be the BIA liaison, but that "hasn't proven to be effective at all," he said.
"So we're in the process of developing a process, and just trying to do it in such a way that both the district and we are happy and we can get things done in a timely way without wasting too many resources, whether BIA resources or district resources."
One issue he intends to address at the district level is the recent decision to consider the Oceanfront lands as the location for a new pavilion, which had originally been intended for at the downtown Pavilion Park. He noted the sign at the downtown park indicating it as the site for the O'Siem pavilion made his case.
"As BIA, if you're going to take something that's been given a $350,000 grant for a park in the downtown and take it somewhere else, we're going to be concerned," said Armour. "So we're just in the process of following up and saying 'Hey, what's going on with that.' The answer back so far is they're looking at a number of locations they're kind of stepping around the issue."
Mayor Greg Gardner said the provincial grant application for the pavilion never included a specific location, and although the downtown park was the "logical" site, the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation's (SODC) recently released land use plan included it on the Nexen Beach property, so that's now in contention.
"Council will be making a decision on that pavilion and not only on that location but on how we move that process forward," he said. "I very much value their [the BIA's] input on the best location for that."
He said the sign is at the park because the province gave it to them so "we thought we should put it up."
Gardner said he's aware of problems, and has asked to meet with the BIA.
"There have been some frustrations on both sides," said Gardner. "I am proactively dealing with this by offering to meet with their executive as soon as possible. That was my own initiative without hearing anything about concerns expressed by them."
Despite the glitches with other organizations, Armour said he has a very positive view of the future of downtown Squamish.
"I think the outlook for downtown is positive and it's really starting to develop its own kind of character with a lot of young people opening up the cooler businesses that you're not going to find on the highway," he said.
"There's always the boo-hooers - the liquor store's leaving, the London Drugs is opening on the highway, and this and that but there's lots of good, positive stuff happening as well.
"The buildings going up behind Save On - granted they're probably only 10 per cent full, but give it a year or two when they're full occupancy, that's another few hundred people kicking around downtown. That adds to the vitality downtown."
